FANTASIA – MUSIC FOR TROMBONE AND ORGAN

The danger of combining the organ with a solo
instrument is that there can often be a plethora
of worthy meditative pieces but a more limited
choice of energetic repertoire. Recent CD
releases would suggest no shortage of music for
trombone and organ, but a lot of the repertoire
on Fantasia is not
terribly engaging when heard as a whole. The
chorale-based
variations of Johann Immanuel Müller make a
welcome contrast
on the final track, and there is interesting use
made of the
trombone as an obbligato part in Bach’s Aus
tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir. The organ, a large four-manual
instrument built by
Nichols & Simpson in 2014, often sounds
rather distant in
comparison to the trombone, particularly in more
contrapuntal
passagework.